Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: The Fresh Grocer Address: 100 Kirkpatrick St, New Brunswick, NJ (aka 95 Paterson St) Opened:  2012 Closed:  2014 Later Tenants:  Key Food (2015-2017) > SuperFresh (2017-2019) Photographed:  July 2020 Welcome to Wellness Plaza, a highly-touted development in the center of New Brunswick that can be described as, at best, a complex with no real effect in downtown, and at worst, a largely-abandoned, expensive eyesore that detracts from the thriving city. The complex opened in 2012 with an RWJ (Robert Wood Johnson, a division of RWJ Barnabas, a healthcare provider affiliated with Rutgers University, I believe) Fitness Center, a large parking garage, and a 50,000 square foot supermarket. It was a location of Philadelphia chain The Fresh Grocer, which is located in several similar developments in and around Philadelphia. Almost immediately after this store opened, The Fresh Grocer's owners left the small and relatively weak cooperative Great Valu Marke...

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 81 Main Street, South River, NJ Opened:  1952 Closed:  1966 Later Tenants:  Krauser's Food Stores Photographed:  February 2021 Diagonally across the street from the Tropical Supermarket here in South River is this Krauser's, in part of a 9000 square foot former ACME. Krauser's is a large convenience store / small grocery store with some dry goods, a large selection of liquor and single-serve beverages, and a deli and grill. It's likely that the sign structure and the partial overhang seen here are left over from the building's days as an ACME. Now this is not a convenience store blog, but I do want to take a minute to appreciate the owner of this store who was exceedingly nice to me when I stopped in to grab an iced tea for the day (and by the end of the transaction, he was calling me "my friend"). The columns and chimney are definitely ACME relics. I'm unsure whether the part that extends out this side (and th...

Our next group of stores as we circle back north is in the greater New Brunswick area! We'll be starting at the south end of the group, with South River, Milltown, and North Brunswick, then passing through the eastern edge of Somerset, the next town to the west, before ending in downtown New Brunswick, which is geographically in the northeastern corner of the municipality, before we cross the Raritan River again to return to the northern part of Middlesex County in our next group. But for now, we're starting with a small store on  The Market Report  tomorrow and a former supermarket across the street here on Grocery Archaeology!